Online forum agrees that politicians queered the pitch on marines row

One of the earliest posts on the “An open forum on Italian marines issue” — an online effort by The Hindu and La Repubblica to understand the viewpoints of Indians and Italians on the marines issue — best sums up the intent of the initiative. Simon of Toronto wrote: “At last, SANITY prevails! A lot of differences can be ironed out via discussions and debates, with understanding, tolerance and mutual respect.”

While readers broadly seemed to take a “nationalist” position, there were many meeting points, too.

Many readers, however, seemed to be unclear about the full facts of the case. While agreeing that the incident was unfortunate and that a crime has been committed, an overwhelming majority of Italians said that the shooting happened in international waters and that it was a mistake. So the marines should be tried by an international body, they said. “I hope that India will do the right thing giving this guy a judgment under an international court,” said Giuseppe Rossi.

For many Indians posting in The Hindu website, this was yet another case of a strong European power bullying a “weak” Asian nation. They firmly held that India has the right to try the marines and sentence them. “I’m 100% sure that an equivalent Indian criminal in Italy would not be given special meals, daily meetings, Christmas holidays and voting holidays,” said Tarun Joseph.

But both sides were nearly unanimous that politicians had queered the pitch, and emotions had been allowed to take the upper hand. Many advised a calm approach so that justice is done. One post asked that instead of the marines, the Italian politicians should face trial in India for botching up the issue.

A great worry for Italians seemed to be the death penalty that India allows. The comments seemed to foretell that an assurance by India that the Italians won’t be handed the death penalty should greatly help in having the marines come back to India for trial. “If they are guilty, they must pay. But not with their death. India should respect the laws of the civilized world and abolish the death penalty,” said Peter Parisius.

Italians posting in The Hindu website seemed to ask for patience, compassion and consideration, given India’s past and civilisational values. And Indians posting on La Repubblica asked that Italians understand and trust India.

“It would be wise for anyone to stay calm while the matter is subjudice and watch the legal course with patience. People of both the republics believe in the justice delivery system. It should not be perceived as a piece of revenge seeking opinion however in the event of affirmation of jurisdiction of Indian in this case. Conduct of trial and consequent penalty should be as provided by penal code,” said Venkata Govindaswamy.

“I believe that our military is guilty, but you cannot disregard the fact that the incident has taken place in international waters. The jurisdiction must be Italian, according to international treaties. I cannot fail, however, to ask, as an Italian, forgiveness for the death of the fishermen. Of primary importance is justice,” said Alberto R.

“There’s too much national pride involved in this case in both countries. It’ll be a shame for Italy to see its marines tried in Indian court for murder and disturbing in case they are sentenced to a jail term. The Indian ego comes from a mindset of resurgent India aspiring to be a superpower and hence we will punish those who kill any Indian,” said Nitin.

“Justice is justice and should be equal for all any where in the world”
Feelings of all in our country must be highly regarded. They all go with the facts they read in the paper and see in the TV. Not all keep records of what is international water and jurisdiction. What they watch is repeated default by Italy on various issues and the criminal attitude of the mariners. It is not the demand of public blood for blood, but justice. Let us consider what Italians would do to any Indians if this happened in their country and proceed with the same punishment.

from:
anilendran menon

Posted on: Mar 27, 2013 at 14:02 IST

Sir, Kindly address the the queries that if an Indian were caught for shooting any European, would there have been an uproar at all? Your newspaper to would not have bothered to take notice, leave around the govt. First of all SC court allowed him to move out of country for voting. Do Indian prisoners in India with such serious offence even get to attend his mother's funeral in case such a situation arise? A definite no. No one can discuss the matter to the merit because one would end up criticising the SC anyhow. The court even let him out for voting when postal vote was an option. Who is liable for such lapses? We as a nation lack complete self respect. How does the govt assure that death would not be sentenced? How if the case merits a death penalty? Where is the justice for the fishermen? Another nonsense that has been cropping up ever since is compensating. Are we for blood money?Now a trend can be started where rapists get away by paying for rape. Shame. But we deserve it!

from:
Arif

Posted on: Mar 27, 2013 at 10:32 IST

It is naive to expect & in fact readers need not know the intricacies
of law which was not the topic of this online forum.It is a known fact centre neither bothered to study seriously the International Law nor it made any steps to form SIT as directed by SC.There are two issues here.1)Knowing the background of the case fully including the marines last visit to home for chrstmas etc SC proved gullible & didn't at all bother to ask the govt/the embassy/marines themselves about postal voting which the embassy staff do & also the marines job is mostly off shore&they will not be going to italy just for the sake of voting spending huge air fares etc.
2)outside powers know very well that our SC orders are getting flouted/disobeyed by our own Govts/corporates & this gave the confidence of our "weak" SC to italy hiding behind the nitty-gritty of international law of sea waters in refusing to send them back to india.
The moral of this is SC to ensure that its orders obeyed.

from:
ramachandrasekaran

Posted on: Mar 27, 2013 at 09:54 IST

Can "queer" the pitch still be spoken in English?

from:
John Welsh

Posted on: Mar 27, 2013 at 07:02 IST

Our judgement of right or wrong should not depend on where we were born. But, sadly we always stand on the side of our friends or countrymen by default. This was a wonderful initiative by the The Hindu and La Repubblica to bring the general public onto a common forum. It would be nice if more such opportunities are presented to interact with people from other schools of thought. We can probably have an interaction with Pakistanis or Sri Lankans. Or probably even with the sympathizers of Indian Naxalists and Maoists.

from:
Sunil

Posted on: Mar 27, 2013 at 06:08 IST

Italians who are worried that the marines will be given the death penalty neednot be worried. Serial Killers, people jailed for heinous crimes, Serial Rapists, pedophiles are RARELY given the death penalty. 2 Europeans accused of killing 2 poor fishermen will never get the death penalty. They would be given vacations, pizza and special food.